Andy P

And thank you Markus for the personal service getting your book "Jun'nen A Decade of Writing about Swords" (compilation of your website articles) and the Dr Honma's Nihon-Koto Shi ordered for me. It's since occurred to me that I should have asked if it would have benefitted you ordering my lulu books directly through you. At some point I will probably contact you about your English translation of the Honma's Appraisal Diary set (I only noticed it being available because I was browsing your blog directory by the month/year links at the bottom of each article page and started seeing the latest volume releases on the April/2024 link). I'm really looking forward to seeing your great instructional guide Kantei series started on your website when it's ready for publication (I have the Koto, Shinto, ShinShinto Kantei books already in print)

I would have posted this probably in another topic but since the code is only good for a few days I'm posting here, the code is SURPRISE20 I tried to use it on the books I had in my cart and it didn't work, I had to empty my cart then add them in order to apply the code. I had been wanting the 3 vol Swordsmiths of Japan and the 3 vol Meiken set, the shipping seems to be fixed regardless of the number of books ($10 for ground usps) so ordering them all at once saves additional costs. Lulu seems to have most of his books (some you have to order directly through Markus)

under the sellers completed items it sold for $217 four days ago, assumed re-listed for non-payment or buyer location (actually 4 days is the amount of time a seller has to wait before being able to cancel/relist without worrying about repercussions from the buyer, ebay won't allow the buyer to leave feedback), if it didn't have bids the seller might consider an offer, but at least there is some idea what it went for recently

Hi Bruce, I followed your arsenal marks thread to help identify the partial seki stamp, I purchased this locally from an acquaintance, he pointed out the arsenal mark and said it meant it was either non-traditional or possibly a tan stamp and could be traditional (I know he knew it was seki but suggested some ambiguity to help with the sale), as soon as I saw the blade I could see the hamon looked weak and not what I expected (and I didn't see grain of any kind, I've since identified the hamon as oil quenched), my gut feeling was it was non-traditional but was in complete type 98 fittings with tassel in fair/good condition so I knew as a military collectible it would be something I could later sell and it would give me some experience examining a non-traditional blade in wwii fittings (my mother was Japanese and was born in hawaii 4 months before pearl harbor, so the wwii connection has some personal interest even though I'm not a military collector). The blade has original patina and hasn't been disturbed but the condition is rough with edge nicking, evidence of bends, an edge twist and has scrapes and scratches suggesting it was whacked around or played with (I suppose it could have been in combat but it is what it is). This was my first sword purchase so I looked at it as a positive learning experience (even though I wanted what I've since learned is Nihonto), I've been building a library and have been studying the details in various listings to learn the complex terminology and try to develop an understanding of what I find personally interesting in terms of form/smith/age etc (trying to avoid impulsive novice buys and understanding how a series of smaller purchases, while satisfying could have been put towards a single more important piece in a collection, that's the hard part of collecting anything, discipline!!). I think I want to focus on tanto/wakizashi perhaps collecting a few pieces but with a focus on study of the history and art form. This is such a great forum and community, I was thrilled to have such a quick translation by Moriyama Koichi. And discovering the downloads section on this site is such an incredible resource (at some point a donation is going to be in order).

Thank you Jean, seems like an especially challenging task to photograph blades (especially swords because of the length), I am sure it drives people nuts that are trying to photograph a beautiful sword and have it look like an old polaroid (makes me appreciate the craft behind good blade photos).

Thanks so much for the quick response, I am new to the hobby, the translation gives me something to study

Thank you for your assistance translating the mei. Seki stamped showato, stamp/kanji only on one side as shown (I had to adjust the contrast etc, the surface oxidation and file mark texture competed with the kanji). Hard to discern towards the end.